Monterey Bay Birding Festival

Friday, September 26, begins the Monterey Bay Birding Festival. I've been looking forward to this weekend since last year. The photo above is from last year's trip.

This year Red will be attending along with my husband and me. I've considered Red to be my professional (or at least semi-professional) photographer. Tomorrow's event is called California Specialties. It begins at 7 a.m. and we have about an hour's drive to get to the check-in place in Watsonville. This is a full-day's trip focusing on birds like yellow-billed magpie, Calif Thrasher, snowy plover, Lawrence's goldfinch, etc. We will be traveling from the Pacific beaches to the foothills of the Salinas Valley (think John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath").

Saturday's trip starts even earlier, 6:30 a.m., which means we will have to leave home around 5:30 a.m. Ugh! Oh well, it's for a good reason. The morning event is called Rancho Del Oso which will give us the opportunity to bird in riparian areas around Monterey pines and mixed evergreens and the coastal redwoods. We should hopefully see wrentit, pygmy nuthatch, hermit warbler, northern pygmy-owl, marbled murrelet and various woodpeckers. We may even see raptors. Since this is a half-day event we also signed up to attend a couple of afternoon lectures given by Jon Dunn. Each lecture is 90 minutes long focusing on honing one's birding skills. The first one is on identifying large shorebirds, and the second lecture will be on identifying small shorebirds. I'm sure glad the lectures are split up regarding small and large shorebirds.

Then on Sunday we will be attending another full-day trip to Pinnacles National Monument. This will be a super exciting trip for me because I am hoping to get a look at some of our California Condors that have been residing there. We should also hopefully see other birds like canyon wrens, greater roadrunners, prairie falcons and loggerhead shrikes.

Hopefully I will have lots of photos to post. I'm also expecting Red to post to her blog, too. I hope everyone else will have a great birdy weekend. I know I'm planning on it.

Backyard visitors, old and new

This entire spring and summer we have daily seen a flock of about 15 pigeons (rock pigeons) perched on the wires from early morn to dusk. They are always perched in the same spot all day long. They are of various colors, but one that really stands out is the all-white pigeon. These birds are perched a couple of yards over from our back yard and they never visit our yard. The photo below shows a crow perched amongst the pigeons. I found it quite strange and amusing. Shortly after I took this shot the crow started harassing a couple of the pigeons. Too bad that photo didn't turn out.

But I sure do get my fill of mourning doves visiting my yard. They are so good at cleaning up spilled seed on the ground. They have help, too, from the juncos and California towhees. This year I have had as many as a dozen mourning doves at one time in my yard. And this year, for the first time, I have had them visiting the feeders. Note the photos below. Can you believe what you see here? A mourning dove in my window feeder. And this has happened repeatedly for the past two weeks. I tend to think these goofy birds are juvies. When a couple of doves started to visit my platform feeder I thought it was amusing. And it was understandable that they could easily "fit" at that feeder. But once they started to figure out how to "fit" themselves into my window feeder I thought it was hilarious.

And two weeks ago I found a new visitor at my platform feeder. A black-headed grosbeak. This is a first for me. I saw a black-headed grosbeak perched on the wire above my backyard last year about this time of year, but it never came to visit the feeders. This year I had as many as four of them at one time. Again, I think these birds are juvies. They visited my yard for only a week, but it was a thrill to see a new species in my back yard. I did not see these grosbeaks all week this week, so I guess they have already migrated.

I do hope they will come back next year. I wonder what other migrants I might see yet this year. What have you seen so far now that fall is upon us?

Views wanted on wild bird feeding

Did everyone see the announcement about Project Wildbird in their Wild Birds Unlimited newsletter? Somehow I missed it and a friend from church showed it to me.

Project Wildbird is a study being done on feed and feeder preferences of wild birds, both in the U.S. and Canada. Apparently this study started 3 years ago and will end this December. It is being conducted by graduate student Stacey Shonkwiler and Dr. David Horn, assistant professor of biology at Millikin University (Decatur, IL). And it is being funded by the Wild Bird Feeding Industry (WBFI) Research Foundation.

Anyone in the U.S. or Canada who feeds wild birds is asked to participate in this online survey located at http://www.projectwildbird.org/. Dr. Horn says, "The questionnaire asks people about why they feed wild birds, the challenges they face, and what will make the bird feeding experience better for them."

The reason behind this project is to see if there are feeder and seed preferences according to one's geographic region and the season of the year. The survey should take about 15 minutes (but it took me about 30 minutes) and can be accomplished by going online to the link above or by calling 1-866-WILDBIRD.

Very young avid birders

Indulge me! Our newest family members are avid bird watchers! Only 5 months old and they know (probably by instinct) that these little feathered critters are something they desire. Here are a few photos I took earlier tonight of Tango and Cash "watching" the birds at the window feeder.

"Hey, Cash, look at this guy. It isn't even afraid of us."

"Tango, it's not budging. Look at what they're eating."

"I can't believe it! We get no respect!"

Meet Tango and Cash!

Meet the newest members of the family: Tango and Cash. Red and I adopted them, and Red brought them home Saturday afternoon. These kittens are 5 months old. They were born at the Humane Society, but mama kitty and 5 kittens were rescued by a group called Town Cats, a no-kill non-profit organization. The Humane Society found/trapped mama kitty and wanted to spay her right away even though she was very pregnant. This meant that the kittens would have been aborted. How sad. But mama kitty, another beautiful black cat, gave birth that night to 5 kittens. We were told that one of the kittens got sick and lived only a couple of weeks. But the other 4 were healthy. Why weren't they adopted sooner? I really don't know. Maybe it was meant for us to have them. Tango and Cash's other brother and sister were adopted a week or two earlier. Cash is a male -- below he is the one in the front with the white chin. Tango is female and seemed to be a bit timid at first, but she and Cash have certainly become "at home" here in our home.

Here is another photo of Tango.
And this is another photo of Cash. We think Cash is going to be the "clown."

Here is a video I shot earlier tonight of Cash playing with a felt toy. I apologize for the poor quality, especially how dark it looks. For some unknown reason Google processes all videos on the dark side. Maybe I'll have to start putting my videos on You Tube; maybe then they won't come out so dark. Hey, Google, are you listening?

A couple of summer visitors and a few of our year-round residents

This summer we have had a couple of visitors I don't remember seeing before in our back yard. First, on the fourth of July we were visited by this Nuttall's Woodpecker. I thought at first it was a Hairy since it looked about the same size as a Hairy. But its call was a bit different and its back was more "ladder-backed." It certainly was a moment of excitement for me when my daughter Red made me realize that it wasn't a Hairy. See Red's photo of this bird by clicking here. Also, don't forget you can click on each of these photos to see a larger view.

Here are a couple of mourning doves acting lovey-dovey. These birds are regular residents around here. I think I have about 6-8 pairs that always hang around here.

Another group of residents - lesser goldfinches. It's always fun to watch them eating the niger thistle seed. Note the one I captured flying into the feeder to the lower left of the feeder. I happened to take this photo while I was waiting for my all-time most bashful visitors to show up.

Can you imagine my excitement when I saw this bird visiting one of my hummingbird feeders? I actually squealed (according to Red). I was so excited, because it has been about 3 years since I last saw any orioles here in my back yard. I apologize for the lack of crispness in this photo, but I quickly took it from inside the house, looking through double glass panes.

Here is a better shot, taken from the back patio -- and this time I was able to get two of them at the same time! Also notice that I had pulled out my oriole feeder and hung it so that they didn't have to struggle to get their nectar from the hummingbird feeder. I've also tried jelly, but no takers. :-(

To the best of my knowledge and with Red's help we are figuring that these orioles are female and juvenile hooded orioles. There seemed to be a total of four that I have seen at one time, so I'm not sure if it could be one mama and 3 juvies, or possibly 2 mamas and 2 juvies. I never did see any males. One other reason they are most likely hooded orioles is that the Stokes and Golden field guides say their nesting habitat is palm trees, and our next door neighbor has two palm trees in their front yard. We also have other palm trees spread throughout the neighborhood. And there have been a number of times I can hear them long before I see them. Their call/song is not very melodious. Part of it is a trill, but the ending of it sounds like a squirrel when it is upset about something. It's a most unusual sound, quite distinct, that I can easily tell it is not one of my usual residents around here.

Have you had the chance to enjoy orioles this summer?

The flora at Monterey Bay

While walking the pathway to the pier where the cormorants were located, we not only saw the brown pelicans and harbor seals, but we saw several beautiful plants. Here are a few. And be sure to visit Red's blog, too. She has some beautiful close-ups that I didn't get.

This first photo is some sort of rock rose. Red hasn't found it's proper name for it yet. I leave all the scientific names for her to locate. As you can tell in the next photo, these rock roses (or whatever they're called) came in various colors.

This is a Matilija poppy. It definitely has that "poppy" look to it.
And this is the all familiar (to us here in California) statice.
Here is a close-up shot of the flower.

Now this is a type of tree mallow. Why it's called that I don't know because it is a shrub not a tree. When I first looked at it I thought it looked like a Rose of Sharon. Red thought it looked like a hibiscus.

Here is a close-up of a couple of the flowers. Aren't they beautiful? I just love the color and shading. If you take a closer look you can probably see some dew drops on the petals. Don't forget to click on the photos to see a larger image.

This was another beautiful plant, but I have no idea what it is. The flowers were kind of like what we would see in a verbena or lantana. And its leaves looked more like a penstemon.

And here is a close-up of the flower.

And this last photo is a group of what is called society garlic. And believe me, it really smells like garlic! And yes, that is Red off to the side looking in her field guide to see if she could identify the flower in the photo above.

The smaller birds at the Coast Guard station

To see the Brandt's Cormorants and brown pelicans in Monterey was plenty exciting. I can't believe I was so close to the brown pelicans, close enough to zoom in on my little point and shoot camera and get good shots. My other experience has been seeing pelicans way out in the bay or ocean -- so far that the zoom on my point and shoot still couldn't bring the birds close enough to get a decent shot. Anyway, seeing these two species was so cool it was worth the trip. But I also got shots of other birds, and some I could not get. When we first walked on the pier I saw a black-crowned night heron perched on a piling. And by the time I got my camera out he flew off. That was another incident where the bird was closer than I have ever been to a BCNH. Another bird we saw, but was moving too fast for me to get any decent pictures was a swallow. What kind of swallow? Well, I'm not sure. But by process of elimination we think it was a northern rough-winged swallow. But because I'm not positive I won't count it on my life list. The other birds we saw but didn't bother to get pictures of were Canada geese. The geese were located between the parking lot and one of the historical buildings adjacent to the trail and Fisherman's Wharf.

Be sure to click on the photos to see larger images.

Now here are a couple of shots of a dark colored bird about the size of a mourning dove. Red and I have been trying to figure out if these were ruddy or black turnstones. But my Stokes guide says black turnstones have a white spot between their eyes and bill. The other marking that was noticed was the color of their legs/feet. Ruddies have yellowish feet, and black turnstones have dark colored legs/feet.
So now I can add another lifer - black turnstone. And just look at the photo below. This one took off as I was snapping the picture. Look at that beautiful pattern of black/brown and white. Now the crazy thing about this shot is that this bird's feet look more on the yellow side than dark brown/black. So now you can see how we have been confused as to which turnstone. But for now I'll still say they were all black turnstones.

Now here is another bird who was hanging around in the same location as the turnstones. And at first I didn't even realize it was a different species. But this one's head looked different. Its back looked so similar to a turnstone, but this bird had very yellow feet.
And this shot shows how speckled its head and breast are. So here is another lifer - a surfbird. I think both turnstones and surfbirds are really very pretty, especially when they are in flight.

While watching the pelicans in flight over the bay we also saw a few kayakers enjoying their time kayaking around the bay. And while we were watching the pelicans and kayakers we saw periodically something jumping out of the water. Eventually we realized it was a couple of dolphins putting on a show for the kayakers. Can you imagine the experience? Oh, if only I could have been out there on the bay in a kayak.

Wordless Wednesday

Pacific Harbor Seals -- aren't they cute?
Photo above: are they shedding? (Don't forget to click on the pictures so you can see a larger image.)
"I'm so bored and lonely."

Brandt's Cormorants

As mentioned in my previous post Red and I drove to Monterey yesterday to spend a few hours near Fisherman's Wharf to look for Brandt's Cormorants. The photo below is the jetty where the Coast Guard station is located. It was less than 1/2 mile from the parking lot. And this is what greeted us when we arrived. Brandt's Cormorants as far as the eye could see - so to speak. As you can see this jetty is full of these birds and their offspring. If you click on the photo you will also see sea lions along the edge. Most of the sea lions were heard but not seen. It sounded like they were all under the wooden pier off to the right and behind us. This photo also shows how the marine layer was keeping the sun from coming through.

This little chick is waiting for food from mama.
And here is mama to the rescue.
This photo is a close-up of a couple of nests with the little ones still in the nest. These babes must be younger; they seem to have more white spots and haven't left the nest yet.

Mama loving her offspring.

Here's another shot of some of mama's love. Be sure to click on the photos to see a larger view. One of these photos, and I think it's this one below, you can see the blue throat on the adult. The blue on the adults' throats is fading now since breeding season is over.